We can be upset, but we can't be hopeless

Sep 06, 2017

It feels unsettling. There’s something wrong -- deeply wrong -- right now. Outside my door there’s ash falling from the sky and choking smoke blanketing my street, the park, and my kid’s school. Our state is on fire. Thousands of Oregonians, our friends and neighbors, have left their homes ahead of the flames.

Brookings - Sisters - Cascade Locks. Unsettled.

Fire isn’t the whole story. I don’t recognize Oregon, covered in smoke, and I don’t recognize this country, where 800,000 people, brought into the United States by their parents, became more fearful this week they’re no longer safe or welcome here. In Oregon an estimated 11,000 DREAMers, including firefighters, law students, EMTs, nurses and teachers were all promised by the government they would be safe if they followed the rules. Now that’s stripped away. The only home they’ve known, shrouded in doubt. Unsettled.

On the news, the shocked faces of mothers and sons, fathers and daughters who are coping with one day living their lives and the next escaping from their home’s second story window as flood waters rise in Texas. Hurricane Harvey displaced thousands of people, our fellow Americans. Hurricane Irma is surging toward us this week -- more powerful today than Katrina when it hit. Deluge and Dread. Unsettled.

We’re caught up in huge forces. No one of us can stop it and it’s easy to want to tune out. That’s not how we make change. Now more than ever we need to dig in -- together. Huge crisis demands a huge response.

We’ll step up, not step out. We’ll give what we can to help those suffering today and we will band together to be our own force of nature. Thousands of Oregonians and millions across the country will make a difference.

What can you do today?

Find out when and where to show up to support immigrants and DREAMers. Keep an eye on groups like Causa Oregon, which are organizing and need us all to help.

Will you sign the petition to urge the legislature to pass Clean Energy Jobs? We’ll make Oregon a worldwide leader to stop climate change with clean energy solutions.

Bring your passion to the cause in Oregon. Upcoming event in Medford (this week!) and in the Portland metro area - sign up to volunteer and we’ll let you know where and when.